Having recently been to a theme park, I feel like this is a topic I have a good knowledge of. Theme parks are a lot of work and are very tiring! This may seem odd at first - after all, most rides involve sitting down - but when you really break it down, you can find many pyschially challenging activities in theme parks.
Screaming for example. You only ever really scream in short bursts - personally, I have never screamed for, say, 5 minutes at the sight of a wasp in my room. At a theme park, screams can be sustained for the duration of the ride which can be up to a minute (which is longer than most wasp encounters). Furthermore, this screaming action is repeated several times over the course of the day, using up a lot of energy forcing the air past the vocal cords (well, some energy at least).
There is also a lot of standing around involved. If you went during peak time, like a Saturday in the middle of the summer holidays on a public holiday, the queues would be crazy and you would be doing an awful lot of standing. And standing needs some energy so our muscles can hold our body upright. Sure, you can try balancing precariously on a fence or sitting on the ground to save on standing energy but you risk falling/being pushed off and sitting on the ground may use more energy to get up and move each time (like turning a lightbulb on and off really fast) unless you do an awkward sitting shuffle.
Also during the more insane rides, your heart rate increases. At a complete guess, as your heart is a muscle, if it is contracting and relaxing at a faster rate (i.e. pumping blood faster) then it might well be using more energy. So being terrified on a ride makes you use up energy. (Here seems like a good point to point out that, though I love Physics and Chemistry, my knowledge of biology is limited to 'I am a human, a type of animal, not a plant.' so this and also the breathing thing above may not be correct!)
But, lets say you decided to avoid the screaming, the increased-heart-rate, and the queues and go on the teacups (one of those lovely underrated rides which are hilarious but have little or no queue). A lot of teacups have a large spinning disk in the middle which you can rotate to spin the cup. You and your friends all climb in and decide to spin the cup, taking it in turns. It takes quite a bit of energy to turn the wheel enough to get the mass of 4-6 people spinning at a decent speed (even if you are all skinny from your previous theme park exercise). That takes serious arm muscles! Really! Who needs a gym anyway :P
Okay, so having built up a decent speed going round on the teacups, you stumble off completely disorentated. Your brain uses quite a bit of energy each day so (again, remembering that this may be entirely wrong) when your brain is confused because you decided to go on the teacups five consequtive times and it gets confused between the motion and what you see. So your brain is probably desperately trying to work out what is going on (before you lose your lunch) and that means it's working harder than if you were just sat motionless and therefore (may be) using more energy.
So, all in all, your body uses a lot of energy going to the theme park. So don't feel quite as guilty about eating that fresh, sugar coated donut (still feel a little guilty for not eating that salad at lunch though...) and sleep it off on the train ride home! (Just remember to get off at the end!)
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